A newbie to rugby, Ben Pinkelman dislocated his shoulder attempting a tackle.

He was a freshman at Cherry Creek High School in metro Denver, and instead of wrapping his arms around the ball carrier, the future CSU Ram and former football player flew like a missile, launching himself at his opponent and crushing his shoulder during the collision.

“I learned pretty quickly not to do that again,” Pinkelman told the Coloradoan over the phone this week while sitting on the beach in Chula Vista, California, home of USA Rugby’s Olympic Training Center.

Pinkelman, now 22 and fully versed in the art of the rugby tackle, is on his way to the Rio Olympic Games, the youngest member of Team USA.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Pinkelman said. “I found out a couple days before the announcement (last Monday), so I’ve had some time to celebrate, but I don’t think it’s really going to hit me until I’m down there, at the opening ceremonies and I see all these stars, these athletes I’ve grown up watching like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt. It’s surreal.”

With its tackling and open field running, rugby looks a little like football, sans pads, helmets and the forward pass. The sport barely makes a dent on America's radar, vastly trailing in popularity behind football, basketball, baseball and soccer.

Ben Pinkelman, a 22-year-old senior at CSU, is one of 12 players on the USA men's sevens rugby team competing at the Rio Olympics.(Photo: Courtesy of Quirk Photography)

But, Pinkelman and his coaches hope the American squad, ranked sixth in the world, can make a dark horse run to a medal in Rio and shine new light on this sport the U.S. once dominated.

“The U.S. has been a little late to the table in developing a pro infrastructure, but they’re definitely on the right path and have an unbelievable talent pool,” said Rod Hartley, a native New Zealander and coach of CSU’s rugby team. “Rugby is ripe for a boost in popularity in this country.”

The U.S. won gold the last time rugby was in the Olympics — 1924 in Paris — but the sport largely fell out in favor of football, a stark contrast to world powers New Zealand, Fiji and South Africa, where the sport is the national pastime.

The Olympic committee in 2009 voted to add rugby sevens, a faster, more wide-open version of the traditional 15-on-15 game because of its fan appeal and better translation to TV. Games of seven-on-seven are split into seven-minute halves where players run for tries (like touchdowns in football).

“People are going to fall in love with this sport when they watch it on TV,” Hartley said.

A former linebacker, Pinkelman instantly fell in love with rugby, which he started playing at his mom’s insistence so he’d stop roughhousing with his younger brothers and sisters.

“I liked the physicality of it and there's always something going on. You have to read the game as you go,” Pinkelman said. “Everyone gets to carry the ball, everyone gets to tackle. It’s much more of a player’s game."

Pinkelman quickly showed a prowess for the game, earning multiple accolades playing for Cherry Creek. The 6-foot-4, 205-pounder chose CSU because of its well-regarded club rugby program. By the 2013-14 season, he was selected to play with the under-20 men’s national team. His play in a tournament in Hong Kong earned him a scholarship to train with the South African team. USA Rugby named him youth player of the year in 2014.

“Oh, you could easily see how talented and athletic he was. You watch video of him, and he can slip tackles like no one else. He knows how to compete for the ball,” Harley said. “What makes Ben special, though, is he’s so humble. There’s no bravado; there’s no arrogance. The guys respond to him.”

Pinkelman garnered interest from Team USA coach Mike Friday last summer while playing for a club team, the Denver Barbarians, and joined the men’s national team in Chula Vista in January. Juggling online coursework (he’ll graduate with a degree in criminal justice) Pinkelman thrust himself into the national team’s starting lineup and quickly became an indispensable player despite his relative lack of international experience.

Pinkelman and Team USA begin Olympic play Aug. 9 against fifth-ranked Argentina for what hopes to be a march toward a medal.

“It’s been a crazy last year,” Pinkelman said. “This time last year, I never really even thought the Olympics were a possibility. It’s an honor to even be in this position.”

Xplore reporter Stephen Meyers covers the outdoors and recreation for the Coloradoan. Follow him on Twitter @stemeyer or @XploreNoCo.

Ben Pinkelman file

Age: 22

Height: 6-foot-4

Weight: 205 pounds

College: Colorado State University

Hometown: Centennial

High school: Cherry Creek

Sport: Rugby, forward

Notable: Youngest member of the 12-person U.S. Olympic rugby team ... scored eight tries in 36 matches with the U.S. men's national team ...started playing rugby at 13 ... during his freshman year at CSU, he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, a chronic gastrointestinal inflammation.

Sevens rugby makes its debut

Rugby returns to the Olympic Games after a 92-year absence, only this time the rules are different — rugby sevens rather than 15s — and the Games include men’s and women’s tournaments.

Rugby sevens is played seven-on-seven for two seven-minute halves, with a two-minute halftime. Teams earn five points for a try (similar to a touchdown in American football) and two points for a conversion, which must be drop kicked and scored within 30 seconds after the try in sevens. Faster and more dynamic than 15s, rugby sevens could be the viral sensation of the Summer Games, with 68 fast-paced matches played over six days.

Team USA is not a favorite to take gold, but the men and women, which both finished sixth in the 2015–16 world series, might be dark horse contenders for a medal in Brazil.

There are three pools of four teams each in the men’s and women’s tournaments. The top two from each group plus the two best third-place teams advance to the quarterfinals. The U.S. women begin play Aug. 6, while the men, sharing a group with top-ranked Fiji, begin against fifth-ranked Argentina Aug. 9.